bacteria in fruit salad

[stephie]

In one of his books, Paul Theroux mentions a cook who made delicious fruit salad by just adding more fruit to left over fruit salad - he never started from scratch.  How healthy is this in reality?  Is it likely to breed bacteria?

[Artemis]

Depends on how clean and hygenic the food is prepared. But shouldn't be a problem as this is what I do.Very fresh fruit is a must though. Tends to go mushy after a while if not fresh.

[secretspirit]

I would have thought you'd have to apply the same hygiene rules to it that most fresh food has i.e. if the oldest part of the fruit salad was prepared more than 2 days ago then you have to bin it and start from scratch. If the oldest bit was cut up and refridgerated the night before it should be OK but I can see why you think the book's a bad influence.